Pleasing God!

I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare.

Ecclesiastes 7:26

The Book of Ecclesiastes is not often quoted and when studied beyond a cursory look can be quite bewildering. It speaks of the meaninglessness of everything we do and does not obviously recognize life after death. Unlike the Psalms, Ecclesiastes is not a “favorite” to be read over and over for every occasion. But Ecclesiastes proclaims God’s truth and we must listen.

Ecclesiastes 7:26 speaks of how a woman can “trap” a man. Solomon obviously knew about this from personal experience as did his father David. David traditionally receives all the blame for his relationship with Bathsheba, but there is no indication that Bathsheba was less than a willing participant in the sin. Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not putting the blame all on Bathsheba, but she did choose to bathe where she could be seen from the King’s roof.

The power that a woman has over a man is God created, God designed, and useful in preserving the relationship over the course of a lifetime. But that power used outside of the God ordained relationship is a snare, a trap and chains.

The good news of this verse is that “the man who pleases God will escape her.” It does not say “the man who escapes her pleases God.” I believe this is talking about a man’s heart. The way to escape the lure of sin is not by power of will or simple determination. The way to escape is to focus your attention on pleasing the Living God and His Son Jesus Christ! The Bible clearly says that He provides for us a way of escaping temptation.

In this verse the trap of a “woman” is, in my opinion symbolic of all sin. The lure of sin draws us away from God and giving in to temptation brings more bitterness than death.

Make “pleasing God” the focus of your life and you will be able to escape temptation!